Super Mario Maker (previously called Mario Maker when announced at E3 2014) is a game creator application for the Wii U which allows players to insert blocks, enemies, items, and more from the Super Mario Bros. series to create and share their own 2D Super Mario levels. The game was announced at E3 2014 and was released in September 2015 (originally set to be released in early 2015), as part of the 30th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros.[1]

The eShop version of the game requires at least 1.4 GB[2] of storage memory to be downloaded. Additionally, more than 150 different Mystery Mushroom costumes are available in the game, but the player can unlock them without scanning the proper amiibo by completing the 100 Mario Challenge.[2]

Pre-title screen animations

Each day the startup screen has a different animation associated with getting Builder Mario off the screen. All the objects are in Super Mario Bros. style.

Sunday - Luigi enters in, shoots a fireball at Builder Mario causing him to fall off, and then runs across the screen. A bunch of characters (including Peach) and a "Happy Sunday" ("Today is Sunday" in PAL versions) banner are also shown on top of the logo alongside text saying, "Let's get making!"

Monday - A Koopa Shell goes across the screen hitting Builder Mario causing him to fall off the screen.

Tuesday - A Magikoopa appears and turns Builder Mario into a Goomba which walks off the screen.

Thursday - Three Goombas enter in, pick up Builder Mario and carry him off while tribal music plays.

Friday - A Gnat picks up Builder Mario, but a fly swatter swats it causing Builder Mario to fall off the screen. (NOTE: At the beginning, in English versions, the day of the week is called "Flyday", but after the gnat has been swatted the word falls with Builder Mario and is called Friday.)

Saturday - A Thwomp falls on Builder Mario causing him to fall off the screen and then raises back up.

Title screen

The title screen of Super Mario Maker.

The screen goes into a sepia tone after the player clicks on the letter K.

In a similar fashion to Mario Paint, the title screen is highly interactive.[3] A randomly generated stage will appear, and players have the option to choose "Create" and edit the stage, or "Play", to choose either Course World or 10 Mario Challenge. Players can even complete the stage before starting. When pressed, each letter will cause a different effect on the game title screen.

SUPER: Five Super Stars will appear and a random voice or voices will shout "Super Mario Maker".

M - The letter M flips upside down and spells Super Wario Maker, and a Mystery Mushroom with a Wario costume appears (in the Super Mario Bros. game style only). In addition, Wario will taunt the player.

A - The letter A will summon a cluster of multi-colored stars to fall behind in the background. All enemies and shells present on the screen will be defeated. A train whistle can also be heard.

R - The legs of the letter R will extend and will shoot a shower of coins, similar to a Bill Blaster shooting coins. A cash register sound will also play.

I - The parakeet from Nintendo DSi Sound, which appears in the recording option, will appear and sit on top of the letter I, making it look like a lowercase I. Like in the application it debuted in, it will also record any sounds, and repeat them with a different effect. The parakeet will leave after a while.

A - Touching the second A will cause it to act like a rocket, with an intercom counting down before it shoots off; it will return soon after. It also clears all items and enemies on screen.

K - The letter K will turn the screen into a sepia tone. The music for the title will also turn into an 8-bit variation. Pressing the K again will revert the screen back to normal.

E - Touching the letter E will summon a Springboard for Mario to use. An oriental drum can be heard.

R - The second R will extend like the first R, turn around and summon either an empty Goomba's Shoe or a Yoshi Egg (depending on the game style). If there are two Yoshis, any more Eggs summoned will hold a Super Mushroom. When using Yoshi, an extra drumbeat will be added to the title screen music.

Dragging the stylus on the screen will produce a stream of magic dust, similar to how Kamek powers up an enemy in the Yoshi's Island and New Super Mario Bros. games.

Gameplay

The game is set up so that players can design their very own 2D Super Mario courses. They are able to set up and edit the length and width of the stages, the course's theme, and game styles, and are able to use various objects, items, and enemies. Players are able to switch between editing and playing their created stages, and can easily make any changes using the tools provided. An outline mode can also be used to show Mario's movements and to make positioning objects easier.

The game starts with only one row of course elements, as the game features an unlocking system, in which a set of elements will be available for the next day, so long as they spend at least five minutes using the tools they have. As part of a Day 1 patch, however, the elements can be made available immediately by spending enough time placing elements on the course. Players can also add sound effects to their courses using the SFX frog (which uses the frog icon from Mario Paint). These effects happen when Mario walks over them in the play mode, with some effects generating visuals. Players can even record their own sound effects and add them to the game. However, these custom sound effects are replaced with a generic parrot/chicken squawk when uploaded to Course World.[4]

Players can save up to 120 different courses onto their Wii U profile.[2] They can be found in Coursebot, the course selection screen. Locally saved and downloaded courses can be arranged into worlds, which are set up like in Super Mario Bros., with four courses per world. There is no way to upload courses in worlds; players can only upload single courses.

Sample courses

Below is the full list of all the 68[5] sample courses that are in the game. The sample courses that are in worlds 1 and 2 are unlocked as the player unlocks new course sets. The sample courses that are in worlds 3 through 16 are used in the 10 Mario Challenge. The world 17 courses are unlocked after the player has completed all the 10 Mario Challenge sample courses.

Styles

The four game styles used in the game.

The six course styles used in the game.

The game gives players the option to choose the game and course styles from various 2D Mario games.[6] There are four game styles and six course styles to choose from. Each game style retains its respective gameplay elements and physics from its base game. For example, Mario cannot carry items in the Super Mario Bros. style, can triple and wall-jump in the New Super Mario Bros. U style, and is able to throw Koopa Shells upward in the Super Mario World style only. Each game style has its own exclusive elements, such as Yoshi being available in the Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U styles, but is replaced in Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 styles by the Goomba's Shoe, as well as its exclusive power-ups and end-goals. Changing a course theme changes the assets, objects and the music of the edit mode to appropriately share the theme. These game and course themes include:

Course elements

Big Mushrooms - appears when tapping either 30th Anniversary Mario amiibo and turns Mario into Big Mario. When powered-up, enemies feature Mario and Luigi aesthetics and the screen changes to look like a CRT television screen.[10] They only work in Super Mario Bros. Style, but in other styles, 1000 points are still earned.

Classic Big Mushroom - With 30th Anniversary Classic amiibo, a normal-looking but large mushroom appears, which can turn Mario into Big Classic Mario.

Modern Big Mushroom - With 30th Anniversary Modern amiibo, a mushroom with a red top and white spots appears, which can turn Mario into Big Modern Mario.

Mystery Mushrooms - by tapping amiibo onto the Wii U GamePad, that character can be inserted into the game as a transformation for Mario in the form of this item.[10] - Exclusive to Super Mario Bros. style.

Weird Mushrooms[20] - Exclusive to Super Mario Bros. style. Randomly appears from a ? Block instead of a Super Mushroom. Can be unlocked for use in the editor by completing world 17 (NWC 2015) sample courses.

Players can make ? Blocks, Brick Blocks, Note Blocks, Bill Blasters, Lakitus and Warp Pipes spawn one of the following objects, by dragging one of the following objects onto one of the former objects (whether huge, winged, both, or neither):

1-Up Mushrooms

Beanstalks

Bloopers

Bob-ombs

Boos

Buzzy Beetles

Chain Chomps

Cheep Cheeps

Coins

Dry Bones

Fire Flowers

Goombas

Hammer Bros

Koopa Troopas

Lakitu's Clouds

Lava Bubbles

Magikoopas

Monty Moles

Muncher

Mystery Mushrooms

P Switches

Piranha Plants

Rocky Wrenches

Spike Tops

Spinies

Springboards

Super Mushrooms

Super Stars

Wigglers

The following objects can be made to move along Tracks by dragging them onto one:

Game modes

In addition to the Course Maker, Super Mario Maker features two game modes: 10 Mario Challenge, and Course World.

10 Mario Challenge

In 10 Mario Challenge, the goal is to clear eight randomly-selected sample courses with up to ten lives. Players can obtain up to three 1-Ups in each course, but must be able to complete the course to collect them. As many as 56 different sample courses appear in this mode, and they'll be added onto the Coursebot's sample courses list when completed.

When the player plays 10 Mario Challenge for the first time, the eight courses that appear are predetermined, and will never change until the player has completed 10 Mario Challenge once.

Course No.

Course Name

Game Style

1

Pipeline to the Other Side

2

Block Town

3

1-1 Remix (Ground)

4

Spinning Boo Buddies

5

A P Switch's Journey

6

Switch it Up!

7

1-1 Remix (Raccoon Mario)

8

1-4 Remix (Castle)

After the player has completed 10 Mario Challenge for the first time, any courses that appear in the 10 Mario Challenge will be chosen at random, instead of being predetermined.

Course World

Course World is Super Mario Maker's dedicated way to share course creations with the rest of the user base. The sharing system is similar to what was done with Pushmo World and the later games in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. Uploading courses is limited to 10 at first, but players will be able to earn the ability to upload more when they are given more stars by players.

In order to share a course online, players must be able to complete it, and have access to Miiverse. Players can download, play, and even alter courses made by other players, but they are unable to re-upload those altered courses to the online servers, as to avoid issues of stealing. Once a course is uploaded, players can comment on it, and/or choose to give it a star if they liked it.

Players can also bookmark courses on the official Super Mario Maker Bookmark website, then access the bookmarked courses in the courses section of Course World.

It should be noted, however, that uploaded courses that haven't received at least one star within a set amount of days can end up being removed from the Super Mario Maker servers without any warning. The Miiverse posts for the courses will only be removed if the player deletes the courses; if deleted by Nintendo, the Miiverse posts will still be present, but the course IDs will not work. Lastly, any courses that are deleted by Nintendo are blocked from being uploaded again, regardless of whether they get updated.

As part of the 1.20 version update, an "Event Courses" section has been added to the Course World. Event Courses allow players to play courses created by Nintendo, and potentially obtain Mystery Mushroom costumes as well.

Medals

Whenever players receive stars, they'll earn medals, based on how many stars are earned. Below are all the medals that the player can get, along with the star requirements needed to get them. Even if a course gets deleted, the stars remain.

Goomba: Receive 1 star.

Koopa Troopa: Receive 50 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 20 courses.

Piranha Plant: Receive 150 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 30 courses.

Spiny: Receive 300 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 40 courses.

Cheep Cheep: Receive 500 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 50 courses.

Blooper: Receive 800 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 60 courses.

Lakitu: Receive 1300 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 70 courses.

Bowser: Receive 2000 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 80 courses.

Toad: Receive 3000 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 90 courses.

Princess Peach: Receive 5000 stars. Allows the player to upload up to 100 courses.

100 Mario Challenge

Course World also features a variant of 10 Mario Challenge, known as 100 Mario Challenge, which gives the player 100 lives to clear a certain number of user-created courses; 8 courses on Easy; 16 courses on Normal and Expert; 6 courses on Super Expert. Courses marked as the selected difficulty (based on clear percentage) are used. Unlike with 10 Mario Challenge, players can save their progress while playing the 100 Mario Challenge, and they can choose to skip a selected course to try another one instead. At first, only the Easy and Normal difficulty levels can be selected, but players can unlock the Expert difficulty by completing the Normal difficulty 100 Mario Challenge at least once, and if they clear Expert once, then the players will unlock the Super Expert difficulty.

Clearing 100 Mario Challenge rewards the player with a random Mystery Mushroom costume. However, there is a limit to how many costumes can be unlocked on a single difficulty level; this in return, means that the player has to complete all the difficulty levels a certain number of times in order to unlock every random costume in the game.

Prior to the release of update version 1.40, without using any amiibo, the player could unlock up to 95 different Mystery Mushroom costumes in 100 Mario Challenge. The unlock limits were originally as follows:

Easy: 20 clears

Normal: 45 clears

Expert: 30 clears

As of version 1.40, additional costumes have been added onto 100 Mario Challenge, which also increases the unlock limits for each difficulty level (except Easy).

Normal: 48 clears

Expert: 34 clears

Super Expert: 5 clears

If the player uses any amiibo to unlock the costumes, then the unlock limit for each difficulty level decreases, depending on which amiibo figures were scanned. Also, when the players have unlocked all the Mystery Mushroom costumes at a certain difficulty level, a notice will appear to notify them.

Differences from original games

Although the recreations are mostly faithful, each style has some minor differences from its source material (disregarding console limitations, etc.). Some of these changes bring one or more styles in line with others, although this is not universal (for an example of a difference that remains, Koopa shells cannot be picked up in Super Mario Bros. style).

General

The HUD for all four styles is laid out like the HUD from New Super Mario Bros. U, with the coin counter on the left and the score and time counters in the top-right.

An in-game "second" on the timer is actually one second, rather than 0.4, 0.6 or 0.7 seconds.

As in New Super Mario Bros. U, Mario cycles between his normal and Fire Mario forms when he obtains a Fire Flower and a rainbow cycle when he collects a Super Star. Previously, in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, whenever Mario collected a Fire Flower or a Super Star, he cycled through a set series of different palettes (Mario's current palette and the three current palettes of the other sprites in Super Mario Bros. & Super Mario Bros. 3; the palettes of Mario, Fire Mario, Luigi & Fire Luigi in Super Mario World).

Bowser cannot throw hammers; Bowser Jr. (with wings) has that option instead. However, a Hammer Bro or winged Bowser Jr. can be put on Bowser's head to simulate this.

All castle areas end with a boss bridge and an Axe, even in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World styles (where the original games featured boss fights such that the boss had to be directly defeated to progress).

It is possible to jump over the Goal Pole, Axe or Giant Gate; whereas the original games treated these as touching the goal. The player must now directly touch the goal to complete the course.

Anything which happens after touching the Goal Pole, Goal Panel, Giant Gate or Axe is purely cosmetic - Mario does not need to enter the fortress or progress off-screen.

Gates and Goal Poles are found inside ghost houses rather than outside.

In the Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U styles, Yoshi can be used in the Ghost House, Airship & Castle themes, despite never appearing in or even being allowed in those courses. New Yoshi drum beats were added to match the music.

Similarly, new Yoshi drum beats were added to the New Super Mario Bros. U Underwater music, since Yoshi did not appear in underwater courses in either New Super Mario Bros. U or New Super Mario Bros. Wii (where most of the music of New Super Mario Bros. U originated).

Thwomps can be stood on, but Mario will take damage unless he is in a Goomba's Shoe or riding a Yoshi.

The Ghost House and Airship themes are available in all four styles (Airships didn't appear in Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World. Ghost houses didn't appear before Super Mario World. As such, new music has been composed for these themes, arranged to fit the styles of the original games[22].) Interestingly, the Airship's Ground and Semi-Solid Platforms in the Super Mario Bros. style are in a metallic color scheme and design as opposed to wooden and ropey, and the Ghost House's Ground and Semi-Solid Platforms are in turquoise and gray for the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 styles respectively to be consistent with the original games' palette color limitations.

This also extends to the Ghost House and Airship backgrounds (lanterns, grandfather clocks, bolts, small flags, etc.), which didn't feature extra background details when shown off at E3 2015.

Lakitu's Cloud in the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 styles is wider and can be ridden on, consistent with the Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U styles.

Mario can swim better underwater when holding an item in all styles that allow carrying items, as in the original Super Mario World.

Semi-Solid Platforms in the second phase while using the Ground theme in the Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U styles are darker versions of the solid Ground elements.

A new cutscene for the 100 Mario Challenge on Normal and Expert difficulties depicting Mario rescuing Peach is created, in the style of arches and a clear daytime sky, and Peach's quote is "Thank You Mario, You're My Hero!". The style of the arches are the same in the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World styles, but toned slightly differently.

Also, the alternate cutscene where Mario encounters Toad after clearing the 10 Mario Challenge or the 100 Mario Challenge on Easy difficulty, Toad does not thank Mario, but instead acts more serious about the situation where Peach has been taken to another castle.

The Doors now only send Mario to another section within same area, while the Warp Pipes are the only means of transporting him from the main area to the sub-area and vice-versa.

When a Monty Mole pops out, it's cutout isn't shown.

The points of Skewers in the mainstream series were pointed, as the name of the obstacle would suggest. In Super Mario Maker, the points are flattened. They will only cause the course to rumble if coming into contact with Ground, Semi-Solid Platforms, Mushroom Platforms, and Spike Traps.

Mushroom Platforms can now be used in the underwater course theme, consistent with other themes, but with stalks in the forms of scales and the caps inside out.

3-Up Moons which were once present in Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U do not exist. Instead, the players reserve up to three extra lives if they clear the course by collecting 1-Up Mushrooms within the course on the 10 Mario Challenge and 100 Mario Challenge.

Big Boos who were present in the latter two games do not appear. Instead, Boo Buddies can be enlarged with a Super Mushroom and retain their physical appearances, consistent with other game styles.

Lava in the Castle theme in all four styles are across the entire course and at the very bottom and in front of all course elements that can be placed there, instead of being between solid platforms and various heights.

Super Mario Bros.

The screen can scroll backwards, allowing the player to backtrack, and auto-scrolling is present as an option.

Visually, beanstalks now have Piranha Plant heads on their tops, making them consistent with other styles.

Lava in the Castle theme is animated and trampolines make sounds when Mario jumps on them, much like in the other styles and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe.

The Underwater theme is completely underwater, consistent with other game styles.

All shells now have spinning sprites.

Enemies and ? Blocks do not have different color schemes in underground or castle levels, except for Munchers, Chain Chomps, Bob-ombs, Buzzy Beetles and Bullet Bills, which would otherwise blend in with the black background.

No timer event exists to trigger fireworks after completing a stage, although a firework SFX exists and can be triggered by Mario walking from the Goal Pole if the level designer includes them.

The Underground, Underwater and Castle backgrounds have been given extra details (statues, railings, skeletal remains, seaweed, etc.), when originally only the Overworld had such.

P-Switches and Warp Doors are now present. The Warp Doors in this game's style are similar in appearance to the Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 3's doors, but in green.

Boss music can now be played, but is taken from Super Mario Bros. 3's Enemy Battle theme. (Super Mario Bros. had no boss theme)

For similar reasons, the P-Switch's music is taken from Super Mario Bros. 3.

Palette color restrictions do not necessarily apply to newly-created sprites, including the Peach and Daisy costumes (some of the options through the Mystery Mushroom) which feature their signature blond/orange hair and pink/orange dresses.

Super Mario Bros. 3

As part of the use of the New Super Mario Bros. U HUD layout, the Power Meter is placed under the coin counter in the top left of the screen, rather than below the playing area.

When Mario touches the goal, he doesn't get a card, as they do not exist in Super Mario Maker. Instead, he receives points for whatever that was displayed in the roulette at the time he touches it. A Super Mushroom is worth 100 points, a Fire Flower is worth 800 points, while a Super Star is worth 4,000 points. A 1-Up Mushroom is added to the roulette to give Mario a chance at getting an extra life instead of points.

As of their introduction, Checkpoint Flags can be used in this style, when in the original, checkpoints were not available, due to the shorter level length.

Bowser hops backward and forward between ground pounds, rather than merely hopping in place.

Mario can exit a Goomba's Shoe by pressing the R or ZR Buttons, as with the Yoshi mechanics in the other styles, rather than being stuck in the shoe until damage is taken.

Mario cannot go into the background when ducking on a White Block platform. Instead, Mario will do a short hop in-place and a noise will play.[23]

The following power-ups present in the original game are not included: Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit, Statue Mario, Hammer Suit and P-Wing. Instead, the Frog Suit and Statue Mario now serve as Mystery Mushroom costumes in the Super Mario Bros. style. However, Weird Mario in any of the power-ups all present in the original game will appear if the player repeatedly taps the normal Warp Door in Edit Mode.

Warp Doors which were originally doorless entryways are swing-open doors based from the Western Super Mario Bros. 2. The Key Doors prior to unlocking with the Key depict the keyholes in the center as opposed to below the door knob, consistent with other game styles.

The Boom Boom and Koopaling Boss music is the only music played for a boss theme. The Enemy Battle music is instead used for the Super Mario Bros. style.

When Mario rescues Peach in this game's style after beating the 100 Mario Challenge on Normal or Expert, Peach stands still and does not have her crying pose.

Big Goombas split into two normal sized Goombas when jumped on, consistent with other styles.

Mushroom Platforms actually take the form of real mushrooms. Originally, there were Wooden Platforms that would take the shape of the latter.

Super Mario World

The players cannot clear the course just by passing through the Giant Gate; they must touch the tape. Touching the tape at the very top results in a 1-up, similar to the flagpole in New Super Mario Bros..

Goal Stars do not exist. Instead, Mario receives points equal to one hundred times the number of stars displayed when touching the tape. He can get either 500, 1,000, 2,500 or 4,000 points depending on where the tape is.

When Mario passes through the Giant Gate while the Bonus Game theme plays, the ending fanfare will be from this Bonus Game.

Upon clearing the Giant Gate, Mario stops and turns to face it, rather than continuing to walk away from it. And if he walks to his ending mark after touching the tape, he will retain his "peace sign" pose until the screen transitions.

After the course clear fanfare, the whistle sound effect and the iris transition, used in the original game to take the player back to the map, is not implemented.

This is because the Midway Gate is one block wider than the Checkpoint Flag.

However, after touching this flag, the sound of the Midway Gate is used.

Bowser now features a new sprite that more closely resembles his modern design than his sprite in the original game. He can also be used outside of the Koopa Clown Car, consistent with the other styles.

When in a Koopa Clown Car, Bowser will throw Bob-ombs instead of Mechakoopas, as with Bowser Jr.'s second fight in New Super Mario Bros. U.

This is also due to the Mechakoopa's lack of presence in the game.

Bowser Jr. will throw Green Koopa Shells when in a Koopa Clown Car.

The Koopa Clown Car has been scaled down to the size of a Junior Clown Car.

Yoshi cannot change Red Koopa Shells into fireballs after eating them. This is consistent with New Super Mario Bros. U, as well as due to the lack of Yellow and Blue Koopa Troopas.

Instead, when Yoshi eats a Lava Bubble, he spits three fireballs, similar to the original Red Koopa Shell fireballs. Yoshi can eat fire from a Rocket Engine or Fire Bar and release a single fireball.

Yoshi will no longer swallow items that are in his mouth after a set period of time.

Yoshi can eat hammers and spit them out. This is consistent with New Super Mario Bros. U.

In the original game, when Mario loses a life, he goes into his death pose, but it isn't animated until he starts flying upwards. In Super Mario Maker, his death pose is now animated from the moment he dies onward.

When the timer reaches the last 100 seconds in the original game, the music speeds up uninterrupted while the warning simultaneously plays. In this game, however, the music stops as the warning plays, then restarts with the faster tempo. This is consistent with the other styles.

Warp Doors actually open when Mario enters them as opposed to the screen pixelating.

The Boo Circle had a mixture of three different Boos in the original, while in this game they are all the same.

Lakitu's cloud remains and can be hijacked after killing him in any way - in the original game, jumping on Lakitu caused the cloud to disperse.

Mushroom Platforms have slim stalks like in Butter Bridge 1 but are lighter toned and have red and yellow cap variations, consistent with the other game styles. Originally, green was the only color for the caps of the Mushroom Platforms.

Berry Bushes do not carry Berries, which are absent from the game, and are part of the background in the Ground theme and are not available for course elements.

Urchins are absent, but this game style's Underwater theme's Spike Traps take the form similar to those enemies.

P Doors are a recolored version of regular Warp Doors (instead of having their own pattern) and have a P emblem on them while active, and have framed lines while inactive, consistent with the other game styles. Originally, there were no framed lines where the P-Switch doors should be.

When Mario rescues Peach in this game's style after beating the 100 Mario Challenge on Normal or Expert, she does not kiss him at all.

Skewers, which were first introduced in this game have a completely new design and go vertically and/or horizontally, corresponding with other game styles. Mario can now pass through them, but will still sustain damage while doing so.

Toad appears in this game's style for the first time, but only in the cutscene after clearing the 10 Mario Challenge or the 100 Mario Challenge on the Easy difficulty. On a side note, the "Egg Is Rescued" song plays during this cutscene.

New Super Mario Bros. U

The HUD is solid white (except for the score, which is solid black) as in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and the beta version of New Super Mario Bros. U instead of the metal opaque color from the final version of the base game.

The Goal Pole base was wider than one block in the original game, as well as in reveal build at E3 2014, but it is only one block wide here. Additionally, after jumping off the pole, Mario enters the castle without doing his victory animation, but he'll still say "Oh yeah, Mario Time!" before entering.

The goal pole will not play the original Super Mario Bros. course clear music when the last two digits on the timer are the same.

Yoshi enters the fortress with Mario after touching the goal pole while riding him, rather than Mario leaving him behind and Yoshi waving goodbye.

Carriable objects cannot be carried above Mario's head, only at his side like in New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. 2.

Stars don't appear when Monty Moles bump into other ones.

The 1-Ups sound has changed.

P-Switches can be carried.

P-Switches are dark blue rather than cyan.

Bowser can destroy breakable blocks with his body and his fire.

When eating a fire-based enemy (Fire Piranha Plants and Lava Bubbles), Yoshi will spit out three fireballs instead of one.

Obsolete

Prior to the 1.20 update on November 4, 2015, power-ups in ? Blocks or Brick Blocks couldn't have status dependency (or couldn't be edited to change depending on Mario's status). For example, a Fire Flower placed in block wouldn't change into a Super Mushroom while Mario was in small form. From 1.20 onward - although the default remains non-status-dependent - dragging a Super Mushroom onto a Fire Flower, Super Leaf, Cape Feather, or Propeller Mushroom will make them show a small mushroom in their lower-right corner. The combined item is status-dependent and can be placed into a block as normal.

Prior to the 1.30 update, P-switches were orange rather than blue in the Super Mario Bros. & New Super Mario Bros. U styles, and showed a ? rather than P in the latter case.

Updates

The following is a list of updates that Super Mario Maker has received.

Version 1.01

Released September 10, 2015, Nintendo provided an official description of the update:[24]

Added a small Easter egg when making courses.

Added a secondary method for unlocking Course elements faster.

Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.

With this update, course sets are unlocked sooner than was planned during development. This is achieved by placing at least 500 items in the Course Maker after all new items are used from a delivery.

Version 1.10

Released September 23, 2015, an official description was provided:[24]

Note: This update requires about 223MB of storage space.

Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.

This update adds support for official Nintendo courses, including inserting into the game's data the message, "This course was uploaded by Nintendo, so it cannot be reported.".[25] Courses made by Mary O. and Yamamura with this designation were added on, October 14, October 20, and November 4 (the latter before the V1.20 update).[26][27][28]

Version 1.20

Released on November 4, 2015, update version 1.20 added some new features to the game:[29][30]

Up to two Checkpoint Flags (one for each Sub Area) can be placed onto courses by shaking an arrow sign to add a checkpoint to the course, and before uploading, the player must be able to clear the course from the checkpoint, as well as normally.

Flags have rotation arrows, rotating at 45° angles. They do not require anchoring and can hover in free space.

Players can place a Super Mushroom on top of a power-up to make it status-dependent (if the player is Small Mario, the item is a Super Mushroom, but if they are Super Mario, the item is whatever the mushroom was placed on).

By shaking a Muncher enough, Watinga will spawn from it in addition to the flies, and hitting him will allow players to play a more difficult version of Gnat Attack.

Completing the hard version of Gnat Attack will unlock the Fighter Fly Mystery Mushroom costume.

In the Course World menu, an "Official" tab was added to the Makers section, which allows players to find courses created by Nintendo.

An Event Courses button were added to the Course World menu, allowing players to access special courses for partners outside Nintendo. These courses can unlock new Mystery Mushroom costumes based on something pertaining to the partner involved. Those that do are clearly marked by a Mystery Mushroom next to the course title. The first six Event Courses were released: Ship Love, Super Bakarhythm Land, Arino Maker, Arino Maker Returns, New! Arino Maker and Tri Force Heroes.

Players can now skip the segment between courses and the intro in the 10/100 Mario Challenge by pressing "A". Players can also skip the loading when Marios are setting up before playing a course for the first time.

Some glitches that were present in the previous updates have been fixed.

An easter egg was added to the Course Maker where the player is able to knock on a Warp Door by tapping it. Knocking it enough times causes Weird Mario to answer it in one of five poses, each different depending on the game style. If the player doesn't knock enough times then a loud knocking sound will be heard answering.

Version 1.21

Released November 12, 2015, the only official note is that Adjustments have been made for a more pleasant gaming experience[24]

Version 1.30

Released on December 21, 2015. This update adds support for the portal site, Super Mario Maker Bookmark. In addition, the "Bookmarks" tab is added in the Course World's Courses section.

New Elements:

3 new elements have been added to the game.

Shaking a Koopa Clown Car will transform it into a Fire Koopa Clown Car. This will enable it to shoot fire.

Shaking a Warp Door will transform it into a P Warp Door. The doors will only be usable when a P switch is activated.

Shaking a Grinder will turn it into a Bumper. This donut-shaped object will bounce anything away that touches it.

Cosmetic changes:

The ? Switches in the New Super Mario Bros. U theme are now blue P-Switches. This was possibly changed to be consistent with Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

The Orange P-Switches in the Super Mario Bros. theme are now blue. This was possibly changed to be consistent with Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

Players can now have an option to retry a course when a course is cleared.

Version 1.31

Released December 28, 2015, the only official note is that Adjustments have been made for a more pleasant gaming experience[24]

Version 1.32

This was an update solely to "Fix a[n unspecified] glitch occurring in “Create” mode", which had led to the online portion of the game being taken down for maintenance for twenty hours on the 28th of January 2016[31].

Version 1.40

An update has been released on March 9, 2016, which adds several new features to the game.[32] These include a Super Expert difficulty level for 100 Mario Challenge, along with new Mystery Mushroom costumes. The new Mystery Mushroom costumes can be unlocked by completing the Normal, Expert, and Super Expert difficulty levels, with some of the costumes being exclusive to the Super Expert difficulty level.

Four new course creating elements have also been added:

Shaking a Thwomp will transform it into a Skewer. They will extend to crush Mario at regular intervals and can be positioned horizontally.

Shaking a P Warp Door will transform it into a Locked Door. The doors are only usable when unlocked by a Key.

Shaking a P-Switch will transform it into a Key. They can be carried to Locked Doors to unlock them, and if one is dragged onto an enemy, it will be dropped when that enemy is defeated.

Shaking a Coin will transform it into a Pink Coin. They act similarly to Red Coins, and if all within a course are collected, a Key will appear.

Three new restrictions on giving out stars were implemented:

If a player tries to star a course using another Nintendo Network ID on the same Wii U console as the user who uploaded the course, the game now gives a message telling the player they cannot do that.

Players cannot star courses unless they have beat or failed at said course at least once; if the player opens up the interface with the star touch button on it without doing so, the icon will be faded out and un-clickable.

Players cannot star more than 100 courses within 24 hours of real life time.

Version 1.41

Released March 17, 2016, the only official note is that Adjustments have been made to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.[24] This patch also fixed Wolf Link's entry in the Mystery Mushroom Menu from Japanese to English.

Version 1.42

Released April 6, 2016, the only official note is that A number of issues have been fixed to make for a more pleasant gaming experience.[24]

Version 1.43

Released May 19, 2016, Nintendo provided an official description of the update[24]. Unusually for a 0.01 update, it includes actual details:

The Star Ranking list in Course World has been changed to display courses that have received the most stars relative to the number of people who have played them. [A message to this effect also pops up when opening the Star Ranking page]

Previously, when searching for courses in the Star Ranking list, results could be set to either “Weekly” or “All-Time” but will now be limited to “All-Time.”

“Super Expert” difficulty has been added to the difficulty filters when searching for courses.

This update (ver1.43) must be downloaded and applied in order to use the Internet features of Super Mario Maker.

In addition, the Mystery Mushroom "Costume Collection" the player has obtained can now be viewed directly from the Main Menu, with the Notifications, Options and Manual buttons being slightly shrunk to allow it to fit.

When choosing costumes by tapping the Mystery Mushroom can now be navigated using and selected/canceled using /, alongside the touch screen.

Cosmetic changes:

Rather than being displayed as "★ Stars / 👣 Plays" in lists, the values are now displayed as "★ Stars [👣 Plays]"

Version 1.44

Commenting on courses during or after playing them will no longer cause them to receive a star.

Changed the conditions that cause the fly to appear while creating courses.

In addition, the player gets notified, now with a reason (i.e. unpopularity, bugs, inappropriate content), when their course(s) gets deleted from the server. Previously, the player gets notified without a reason.

Version 1.45

Released November 30, 2016, the only official note is that A number of issues have been fixed to make for a pleasant playing experience.[24]

Version 1.46

Released April 27, 2017, the only official note is that A number of issues have been fixed to make for a pleasant playing experience.[24]

Released September 5, 2017, an additional update was added to Version 1.46:

Addressed an issue that caused text in the e-manual to display incorrectly.

Development

Shigeru Miyamoto had shown interest in developing a user-generated Mario game since at least 2009, citing the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series and Flipnote Studio as examples of Nintendo products already featuring such content to demonstrate how open he is to the idea.[33]

Reception

Super Mario Maker has received generally positive reviews from critics. Currently, the game has an 88% average on Metacritic[34] and an 89% average on Game Rankings [35]. IGN gave the game a 9.6, praising the game's social elements and highlighting the 10 Mario Challenge in a positive light, stating that players would "see a genuine reverence for Mario’s history" in the online modes. [36] Destructoid, Nintendo World Report and VideoGamer.com gave the game an 8 out of 10, while Game Informer [37]and GameSpot [38] gave a 9 out of 10, and EGM [39] and Polygon [40] gave it an 9.5 out of 10.

The game has been praised for its simple but well designed and expansive interface, social elements and highlighting the 10-Mario Challenge. Some criticisms towards the game include the lack of certain elements, with checkpoints and slopes being the most common, and the issue in finding courses from friends on the Course World feature. The game has also been criticized for its level-sharing organization and quality control such as Michael Thomsen from The Washington Post, who lambasted the game by calling it "an engine for circulating bad ideas and broken gimmicks as if there weren’t already an overabundance of them."[41] Patricia Hernandez from Kotaku, on the other hand, as a direct response to Thomsen's argument, has defended Super Mario Maker, stating that "Mario Maker isn’t a worse game simply because all these shitty levels exist" and praising its simplicity of level creation, but has agreed that the content-sharing aspect of Super Mario Maker is highly flawed.[42]

As of the end of September 2015, Super Mario Maker has sold over a million copies worldwide. It was the fourth-fastest selling Wii U title since the system's launch. [43]
As of the end of December 2015, Super Mario Maker racked up over 3.3 million sales. [44]

Glitches

It has been requested that this section be rewritten and expanded. Reason: All the block glitches are the same thing, so they should be combined into one section.

Permanent Invincibility

NOTE: This glitch only works on update versions before 1.20.

For this glitch, the player must have a power-up that will turn them into Super Mario when hit. If the player takes any form of damage and enters a door when the invincibility frames are about to end, Mario will retain the invincibility for the duration of the course; he cannot take damage from enemies or obstacles, except for bottomless pits or lava which automatically cause the player to lose a life. While in this state the player also cannot collect any power-ups except for Super Stars.[45]

This likely happens due to how post-damage invincibility functions in the game. By entering the door at the end of the invincibility frames, the player circumvents the invincibility timer. Therefore, even though he is not blinking, when he exits the door, he is still invincible.

Invisible Platform

NOTE: This glitch only works on update versions before 1.20.

This glitch requires a cloud platform, a track piece, and an invisible ? Block. Put the invisible ? Block on the track, then change the tab to a different object.
Next, put the track over the cloud platform, then switch to the track tab. Finally, touch the track, and pull it towards the platform. If the player sees the cloud platform in front of the invisible ? Block, then the glitch didn't work, but if the player just sees the invisible ? Block, then the glitch did work. This can also happen with hard blocks and solid blocks. The method for the latter two cab be found below.

Solid Block Glitch

This glitch is similar to the invisible platform glitch, and requires a Brick Block, a track piece, and a solid block. Put the Brick Block onto the track, but make sure that the tab is not on the track. Move the track so the Brick Block is overlapping the solid block. Select the track tab, grab an end of the track, and side it toward the brick block. If the brick block disappears into the solid block, then the glitch worked. Now, when Super Mario hits the solid block from below, the block will break. Or when Mario hits a P-switch and touches the block, the block will disappear, and a coin will be added to the player's total.

Fake Hard Block Glitch

This glitch is similar to the ones listed above. It requires a hard block and an invisible block, as well as a track. Place the hard block down, and put the invisible block on the track. Then, drag the track with the block onto the hard block. If done correctly, the block, when stepped on, will send Mario falling.

Vine Wall Clip Glitch

This involves blocks covering vines and the Super Mario Bros. style. First place two vines, then cover the vines with blocks. When playing, climb up the vine without the blocks, then at the top, press right to transfer to the other vine. Mario will instead clip through the ground blocks above and can freely walk through the wall.

Four Bowsers

NOTE: This glitch only works on update versions before 1.32.

This glitch involves Bowser, track, and a firebar. First, place a track segment and place Bowser on it. Next, place a firebar on Bowser, then extend it to full length while simultaneously holding right on the Control Stick. After a couple screens, hit Undo, and the editor should lock up, causing the firebar to remain. Head to the main menu and tap the Exit option. Bowser will be visible on the title screen, but when you head back to the editor, the firebar will replace him. Delete the firebar. Tap Play to make Bowser reappear, then go back to the editor. Place 2 Bowsers, then delete the original to place another. When the Play option is tapped, the original Bowser will remain, bypassing the limit. Keep in mind that the original Bowser must be on a track or he will fall off the stage.

WARNING: If performed, the glitch will cause random Bowsers to appear out of nowhere upon starting a course before falling off screen. To stop this, one must shut off their console before restarting it. If the problem persists, unplugging the console might fix it.

Wrong Block Art

NOTE: This glitch only works on update versions before 1.11.

Sometimes, if one places a grass tile around other tiles (confirmed in the Super Mario World theme with the grass tile) then deletes the tiles around them, and then replacing them, that one tile may glitch and show the wrong tile art. There is another way to do this in the New Super Mario Bros. U theme (only confirmed on it, however).[46]

VS. Super Mario Bros.: Using the bonus room SFX in the Super Mario Bros. game style will make the high score table music from this game play.

Wrecking Crew: Foreman Spike is a playable costume and several jingles from the game are used along with the costume.

Super Mario Bros. 2: The door sprite from this game is used in the Super Mario Bros. 3 game style, but is now orange instead of the original red. When using Princess Peach, Shy Guy, and Birdo (Event Course) as Costume Mario, various sound effects from this game are used. As of version 1.3.2 since March 9, 2016, new Warp Doors with keyholes that require keys to open the door are based from this game where the players needed to find the key to open locked doors in order to advance on.

Super Mario Bros. 3: The second game style is based on this game. The Course World menu music and 100 Mario Challenge map music are both cover versions of the Grass Land map theme.[47] Using the boss battle SFX in the Super Mario Bros. game style will make the Hammer Bros. battle music from this game play. The P-switch theme in this game style is also from this game. The Toad sprite that appears when beating 10/100 Mario Challenge in the Super Mario World style is based on his sprite from this game. Additionally, if Mario crouches on a white block in this game's style for five seconds, he will do a short little hop and make a grunting noise, as a nod to the method of obtaining the Magic Whistle in World 1-3. Frog Mario and Statue Mario from this game appears as Event Course costumes. In Version 1.20 and beyond, repeatedly tapping a Warp Door in Edit mode while in the Super Mario Bros. 3 game style causes Weird Mario to answer the door, portrayed as either Raccoon Mario, Frog Mario, Tanooki Mario, Statue Mario, or Hammer Mario.

Super Mario World: The third game style is based on this game. The map theme for the 10 Mario Challenge is a cover version of the main map theme from this game. The "To Be Continued..." screen at the end of 10 Mario Challenge and Easy 100 Mario Challenge is a direct rip of the "Bonus Game Clear" music, and the credits music after clearing a 100 Mario Challenge quotes the ending music. In Version 1.20 and beyond, repeatedly tapping a Warp Door in Edit mode while in the Super Mario World game style causes Weird Mario to answer the door, portrayed as either Cape Mario, Balloon Mario, striking the end level pose, or riding on Yoshi. Also, update 1.4 on March 9, 2016 added Skewers, available by shaking a Thwomp.

Super Mario Kart: The invincible theme from this game is used when the Mario Kart costume uses a Super Star. Also, the race start fanfare jingle is heard when Mario picks up the Mystery Mushroom. The 1st-4th place (course clear) and 5th-8th place (death) jingles are also heard. Ironically, when Mario is moving, the kart's engine sound is actually coming from Bowser and Donkey Kong Jr.'s karts, rather than his and Luigi's.

Mario Paint: Super Mario Maker is inspired in many ways by this game, and thus features similar elements. The game's logo and the interactive title screen is similar to this game's logo and interactive title screen.[48]Gnats will occasionally roam across the screen, and swatting them will trigger the Gnat Attack minigame. A frog icon, used to add sound effects to the level creator, appears on the left in the edit screen, which is the same as the one used in the music composer mode. Mr. Eraser, Undodog, the "Reset Rocket" that deletes everything on the screen, and the robot that appears when saving something in this game also reappear. When selecting a level to play in Super Mario Maker, the screen used is also based off of the robot. The two people that appear in the presentation before starting the game reappear on the loading screen for the Course World.

Super Mario All-Stars: The Warp Doors in the Super Mario Bros. style are similar in appearance to the Warp Doors in this game's rendition of Super Mario Bros. 3, but are green instead of tan in order to be consistent with the original game's palette color limitations..

Super Mario 64: The victory theme and Game Over theme from this game are used when the Mario, Silver Mario, and Gold Mario costumes complete a level or lose a life, respectively. The Wing Cap theme is used for the Mario costume's invincibility and the Metal Cap theme is used for the Gold Mario and Silver Mario costumes' invincibility.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: When clearing a 10/Easy 100 Mario Challenge in a Toad costume, Toad will address Mario as "Captain", referring to Captain Toad. A Captain Toad costume that uses various sound effects and jingles from the game is unlockable after beating the Captain Toad event level; the level itself recommends that the players don't jump to keep in spirit with the original game. Toadette, based on her appearance from the game, appears as an Event Course costume.

Mario Kart 8: The kart that Mario drives is based on a Standard Kart from this game, with the Super Glider deployed and the wheels in anti-gravity mode when the Mario Kart costume jumps. The Mercedes-Benz GLA returns as an Event Course costume. Some of Mario's voice clips are reused, especially in the rare death pit clips.

Yoshi's Woolly World: Several sound effects and jingles from this game are used along with the Green Yarn Yoshi, Pink Yarn Yoshi, Light Blue Yarn Yoshi, and Mega Yarn Yoshi costumes.

Super Mario Odyssey: The construction outfit Mario dons in the artwork for Super Mario Maker can later be worn in this title. A sprite of Costume Mario's Cat Mario costume can be seen on the side of one of the skyscrapers in the Metro Kingdom and a building in the Sand Kingdom.[49][50]

Gallery

Media

It has been suggested that audio and/or video file(s) related to this article be uploaded.

Please upload all related music, sound effects, voice clips, or any videos for this section. See the help page for information on how to get started. Specifics: Needs level music for all game and level themes.

Staff

Trivia

On very rare occasions, when falling into a pit, the death jingle is preceded by one of the eight longer sound clips (eg. one of them which would whisper the game's title).[51][52]

When placing an object onto a course, a distorted voice will say the name of said object (e.g. "Pipe" for placing/adjusting a Warp Pipe), which will correspond in tone with the stage's music.

Holding , , and while a course loads will cause it to be displayed as if it were on a CRT television screen, similarly to the Big Mushroom; unlike the Big Mushroom, this easter egg is functional in all four game styles.[53]

Ironically, in the New Super Mario Bros. U style with the Airship theme, the Mushroom Platforms' stalks do not take on mechanical form like the other three styles do, and instead retain the normal stalks as if they formed through the grounds.